Silicon Valley Girl: AI, Tech and Career Growth
Jun 16, 2026 · 42 min · 11 segments
Esther Wojcicki is the "Godmother of Silicon Valley." She raised three daughters: Susan, who ran YouTube; Anne, who founded 23andMe; and Janet, a professor and anthropologist. Her parenting advice got…
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Esther WojcickiGuest
Marina MogilkoHost
Back in 2022, my older daughter was two, my younger was one, and I was running on no sleep for almost three years.
I was forgetting who I was, and it was really hard to function because I was exhausted and I still had to work.
That's when my friend recommended a book by Esther Wojcicki, The Woj Way, or How to Raise Successful Kids.
I started reading about her difficult childhood, how she raised three daughters in Silicon Valley as a teacher.
So she was that teacher who knocked on Steve Jobs' door asking for computers and walked out with Macs.
And I kept thinking, "If she was able to pull it off, then I will be able to do it too." So we sat down, I took some of her principles and bought them into how I parent, and today we're sitting down with Esther.
Janet, her second daughter, is a researcher at UCSF, and Anne is the founder of 23andMe.
Her company was once valued at billions of dollars, and then it went through bankruptcy, and then she bought it back.
I really want to know, how do you raise kids who know how to fight for what they believe in? I really wanna know how I can use her upbringing principles not only to raise them, but also, how do I stand up after mistakes? How do I keep trying? Let's do it.
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Back in 2022, my older daughter was two, my younger was one, and I was running on no sleep for almost three years.
I was forgetting who I was, and it was really hard to function because I was exhausted and I still had to work.
That's when my friend recommended a book by Esther Wojcicki, The Woj Way, or How to Raise Successful Kids.
I started reading about her difficult childhood, how she raised three daughters in Silicon Valley as a teacher.
So she was that teacher who knocked on Steve Jobs' door asking for computers and walked out with Macs.
And I kept thinking, "If she was able to pull it off, then I will be able to do it too." So we sat down, I took some of her principles and bought them into how I parent, and today we're sitting down with Esther.
Janet, her second daughter, is a researcher at UCSF, and Anne is the founder of 23andMe.
Her company was once valued at billions of dollars, and then it went through bankruptcy, and then she bought it back.
I really want to know, how do you raise kids who know how to fight for what they believe in? I really wanna know how I can use her upbringing principles not only to raise them, but also, how do I stand up after mistakes? How do I keep trying? Let's do it.